Embodiment of Desire
by Mugetsu16
Summary: Three women could claim me as their child. The first saw me as her child, and loved me for it. The second also saw me as her child, but also viewed me as a means to an end. The last only saw me as an abomination. People saw me as a weapon, enemies as a monster. Should I hate them? No. Ants are not worth the effort to hate. Naruto/PJO/Black Rock Shooter
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, I'm still alive! I would say more, but I don't want super long author's notes, so look for more in _Embodiment of Desire BTS_ under my stories on my profile!**

 **I do not own Naruto or Black Rock Shooter**

 _The world was unsettling, to say the least._

 _The landscape looked like it was designed by a child. With the pink tinted skies and land and the giant toys lying everywhere, it was something that was not hard to believe. But, there was one detail that changed that thought, and made the reality seem all the more terrifying._

 _Every single toy was broken._

 _Doll arms were scattered here and there. The fractured and sometimes collapsed faces of baby dolls were lying in a pile, partially covered by the decapitated head of a stone pony._

 _And the stone._

 _It was a strange addition, but something that fit well with the creepy motif. Jagged spikes of substance were sticking upright out of the ground, but they were few in number. The real use of stone in this world was the stones pathways criss crossing all over the world, some of them defying gravity._

 _A good number of them lead to the same area, a doll house floating in what appeared to be the center of the world._

 _However, even the stone couldn't cover up the blocks that were present in the world. Blocks number in the thousands, if not millions, dotted the landscape. Some stood solitary, while others were in groups. They were all the same general shape, yet the colors varied from block to block._

 _Despite all this, everything in the world seemed to be in harmony, the existence of one unusual thing accenting another. Everything seemed to fit._

 _Except for one._

 _A little girl._

 _The first thing that stood out about her was her choice in attire, something that was completely inappropriate for someone her apparent age of twelve. Actually, her choice of clothing was inappropriate for anyone to wear in public._

 _She was wearing a pair of black short shorts, the waist line of which was crossed by a white belt with a blue band running through the center of it. Her upper body had hardly any better attire, covered only by two black cloth triangles, fastened to her back and over the shoulders. It could have been called a bra if she had any chest to speak of._

 _Her extremities were better covered, with shoulder-length arm warmers being leading to wrist-length gloves covering both her arms. Much like her belt, the arm warmers were of multiple colors, this time a navy blue with a white line running down the center. Her legs were housed within a pair of knee-high navy blue boots, the top of which had white bordering._

 _The only thing that was preserving her modesty from the world was A navy blue and white jacket, one that was ankle-length, and unfastened. On the back of the jacket was a single white star, proudly lying there as the only decoration of her entire attire._

 _Around her neck was a navy blue choker, with what appeared to be a small lock hanging off of it. Even though chokers were considered a derogatory accessory, this one only seemed to enhance her otherworldly appearance._

 _To complete the look, her head was shrouded by a hood. Despite the use of the headwear, the black bangs that covered her forehead and a portion of her face was still visible. Staring out of her hood and between her bangs were her most defining trait_

 _Two blue eyes._

 _Usually, the eyes were one of the last things that stood out about a person, but she was different. Not many people had eyes that were glowing, nor had multiple rings within them._

 _Nor did most pairs of eyes have the complete and utter lack of emotion that hers did._

 _It was quite scary. The girl did not seem to register the depravity that was her surroundings, and was just walking on one of the many paths of the world, her clothing disturbed only by the wind that caused her jacket to flutter behind her. However, her eyes did not seem to register this._

 _To be accurate, her eyes did not wish to put forth the effort to register it._

 _As she walked in between yet another pile of bricks, she was greeted by an intersection. Turning her head, she was greeted by the sight of a golden gear masquerading as a wheel, rapidly approaching her face._

* * *

Naruto snapped awake, quickly sitting up in bed. Still panting and sweating from his dream, he reached over to his nightstand and picked up the glass of water, quickly downing it in hopes of providing himself with some relief.

 _"That dream, it was so…real…"_

Naruto placed the glass back on his nightstand, and got out of bed. Walking towards the bathroom, he thought about what he had just seen.

Sure, he had dreamt before, but this time it was so vivid, so detailed. Most of his dreams were either hazy of hard to remember, but Naruto could still remember every detail he had seen, including the girl that he had seen.

Opening the door of his bathroom, he walked to the sink and turned the tap, letting the water flow. Reaching forward, he yelped and quickly drew his hand back from the scalding water, turning the tap to a cooler setting.

As he waited for the water to cool down, his thoughts drifted back to the dream that he had seen, and he blushed. He might be seven years old and have shown no signs of interest in women yet, but he still had to blush at the indecency of the girl. He idly noted that she was quite beautiful given her apparent age, despite how thin she was.

Reaching into the pool of water, Naruto quickly doused his face with the cooler water, washing away his sweat and his drowsiness. Looking into the cracked mirror above the sink, two blue eyes looked back at him with determination. He needed to get his mind off these serious thoughts, and there was only one thing that could do that.

As he grinned at the mirror, he threw both arms into the air and ran to the adjoining closet. Sparing the slightest glance at the sign that read "Pranking Supplies", he threw open the door and looked at his small horde.

His grin stretching even wider, the blonde boy reached out and grabbed the few containers of orange paint that he had left from his last supply run. Shaking them, he nodded in approval when he realized that every container was at least half full.

He had just enough for what he wanted to do.

* * *

Naruto was running down the street, nimbly dodging civilians as he fled the shouts of anger that he could hear following him a distance away. He did not need to put that much effort, when the civilians caught sight of him, they would either sneer at him in disgust or glare at him angrily. All of them at least attempted to move out of his way, taking care not to touch him.

Naruto laughed out loud as he ran, a massive grin stretched on his face. The spent buckets of orange paint would clash against each other on his forearms, giving his pursuers a signal to follow. The blonde didn't mind this, it would make the chase more exciting.

It would make sure someone was interested in him, even if it was only to punish him.

 _"Ha! Those Hyuuga temes didn't even see it coming! Serves them right!"_

Naruto had the previous night snuck into the Hyuuga compound. It really was not that hard for in their arrogance, the Hyuugas did not post any guards, believing that the reputation of their "All Seeing Eyes" would deter any trespassers.

Having easily gotten into the compound, Naruto swiftly went from home to home, snatching any underwear that was still left outside to dry. This, a few buckets of paint, and a desire to cause mischief spawned what the village woke up to earlier that morning.

Underwear. Every piece of underwear that he had managed to get his hands on the previous night had been dyed orange. But that was not the end of it. No, Naruto took his time to scatter the underwear all over Konoha, making sure to place them in not only every other clan compound, but as well as frequented areas of the village, such as the Hokage mansion and the market district.

Even as he watched, many red-faced Hyuuga's were rushing around to collect their underwear, or were blushing and looking downward as they received their undergarments from smug-faced or laughing members of other clans.

Looking at another Hyuuga collecting her underwear, Naruto had to suppress a shudder. No woman in her forties should be collecting lacy and provocative underwear that was meant for someone half her age. Naruto gagged and nearly tripped due to the mental image that popped into his head.

 _"I need to bleach my eyes…and my brain…and then my eyes again…Why would an old grandma wear that?"_

This distraction costed him though, as he was yanked out of his thoughts by a hand that was firmly clasped onto his shoulder, stopping him from running away. Looking up, he was greeted by the stone-like visage of the Hyuuga clan head Hiashi.

Naruto may have been more scared if it wasn't for the twitching eyebrow, and the small collection of orange underwear that he held in his free hand.

Grinning to himself, Naruto did what he did best when caught in a situation like this. He made matters worse.

"Hey Oji-san! I see you found your stuff!" Giving him a thumbs up, he closed his eyes and gave Hiashi a toothy smile. "I like your choice of color! I knew there had to be a fellow orange-lover in Konoha somewhere!"

Even after saying all of that, Naruto was still smiling. He was still smiling, even as he was knocked out by a not-so-gentle strike to his chest, driving the air out of his lungs as he collapsed onto the ground, robbed of consciousness by the foreign chakra that had entered his body through the strike.

Hiashi looked at the boy, and starting walking in the direction of the Hokage's office. By unspoken command, a Hyuuga Branch member arrived, picked up the fallen child, and followed his clan leader to his destination.

* * *

 _Naruto's snapped open as he sat up suddenly. Clutching his head due to the sudden vertigo, he stood up and started to look around. When he finally registered the details of the world that he was in, he froze._

 _The pink skies. The broken toys. The stone formations that were scattered around the landscape. Even the omnipresent blocks._

 _It was the same world that he had dreamed of the night before._

 _Naruto, being as calm and collected as he usually is, did the one thing that he would obviously do when the wakes up in an unfamiliar place with no recollection of how he arrived there._

 _He started to yell._

 _"WHAT THE HELL! WHERE DID YOU PUT ME, YOU STUPID WHITE-EYED TEMES? COME BACK HERE SO I CAN KICK ALL YOUR ASSES, DATTEBAYO!"_

 _When he said his verbal tick, Naruto immediately clamped his hands over his mouth as he turned red. It was a source of embarrassment for him. No matter how hard he tried, whenever he became really angry or really happy, the word just slipped out of his mouth. It didn't help that he could still hear the word echoing in the distance._

 _Before he could launch into another tirade about how it would take more than this to scare him that would someone turn into another exclamation about his dream of becoming Hokage someday, he was snapped out of it by the sound of footsteps approaching him from behind._

 _Swinging around, a confident smile lit his face as he addressed what he thought was an approaching Hyuuga. "Ha, I knew you guys were around here! Now I can—"_

 _The words died in his throat when he noted that the person behind him wasn't a Hyuuga. The person wasn't a Konoha shinobi, nor anyone that Naruto had actually met in person before. Despite this, he still recognized the person in front of him._

 _How could he forget the girl that he had dreamed of the night before?_

 _Before he could address the girl, she thrusted her arm forward. Expecting an attack, Naruto was surprised when her outstretched arm stopped a few feet away from his chest, her palm open as if she was expecting him to give her something._

 _Or to take her hand._

 _Still confused about what was going on, Naruto questioned the girl, but this time without his usual level of confidence. "Um, where are we, and who are you?"_

 _Expecting an answer, Naruto was disappointed when she didn't answer, or even show any signs of hearing what he had said. Slightly irritated, Naruto waved his hand in her face. "Hey, I'm talking to you! Where are we?"_

 _Naruto only grew further incensed when he got the same answer as before. Before he could snap and start yelling at her for ignoring him, the world around him started to fade as he started to wake up._

 _The girl never made a move to stop him, and even as he caught a last glimpse of her, she never moved from her position with her outstretched arm._

* * *

Snapping awake, Naruto sat up in the couch, this time growing slightly angry as he was hit with a sense of deja vu.

 _"Seriously!"_ He yelled at himself angrily, _"This is the third time that this happened today, and it hasn't even been twelve hours yet!"_

As he sat there fuming silently, he looked around to see exactly where he was. Recognizing the familiar walls of the Hokage's office, Naruto was greeted by the stern eyes of the Hokage, who was seated behind his desk.

Leaping off of the couch and onto the desk, Naruto unrepentantly knocked over a stack of papers as he greeted the village leader.

"Jiji!"

Throwing his arms around his grandfather figure in a tight hug. Naruto relaxed as he was finally somewhere he could feel safe.

The village leader's face softened as he encircled the child with his much longer arms. As the boy finally settled in his embrace, the Hokage questioned him.

"Why did you do it, Naruto-kun?" Naruto froze in his jiji's lap before he looked up into Sarutobi's eyes. He nervously replied, "Did what jiji?"

The Sandaime released Naruto and started rubbing his temples. Prankster, the boy may be, but he was a horrible liar. "You know what I mean Naruto. Hiashi was in my office not five minutes ago, holding a pair of orange underwear. Care to explain that?"

"Uh…it wasn't me?"

If it wasn't the hesitant tone in his voice that gave him away, the sheepish smile and the hand rubbing the back of his head surely did. Groaning, Sarutobi motioned for Naruto to sit across from him. Rearranging himself, the Sandaime looked across the desk directly at Naruto, an air of seriousness about him.

Growing worried, Naruto was about to break the silence before the aged leader beat him to it. "Naruto, do you know why I ask you to stop pranking the village every time you come to my office?"

Confused, all Naruto did was shake his head.

"You're now six years old, almost seven, so I think that it is time that you finally understood." Shutting his eyes, the Sandaime prepared to lecture his young charge.

"When you pull a prank, I divert resources from the already limited shinobi pool in order to assess the damages and make any necessary remunerations. Due to the enormity of the task, I sometimes need to assign several squads to this task. Since they are settling the mess, I am unable to give them missions. Not only does this negatively impact the income of the shinobi involved, it also hurts the general welfare of the village. Do you understand this Naruto?"

Opening his eyes, the Hokage sweatdropped at the sight before him.

Naruto was mumbling to himself with swirls in his eyes. The lecture too much for him, he slammed his forehead on the table and looked at the Sandaime again. Obviously, he gave an incredibly intelligent reply, one far beyond his years and that of his peers.

"Huh?"

The Hokage rubbed his face, replying "When you pull pranks, you hurt the village."

Hearing this, Naruto's eyes widened as he started to blubber about not wanting to hurt the village, which at some point saying that he will become an awesome shinobi village and then Hokage.

The Sandaime raised his hand, stopping Naruto in mid-sentence. "I'm not saying that you have to stop your pranks, but just tone them down, and make them less frequent." The Sandaime rubbed Naruto's hair and smiled down at the child. "Understood?"

"HAI, JIJI!" A grand smile spread across Naruto's face. Turning around to leave the office, the Hokage called him. Looking back at the aged leader, Naruto was surprised to see that there was ANBU agent where there had not been one moments before.

"You need to get home, and I don't want you walking around alone right now. Tora here will make sure that you get home safely and make sure that you don't get into any mischief."

Giving his grandfather-figure an all too innocent look, Naruto whined. "Aww jiji, why, don't you trust me?"

Seeing the dry look on the Sandaime's face, Naruto extended his arm towards the ANBU agent. With one last goodbye to the Sandaime, the blonde felt the world blur around him as he arrived in front of his apartment.

Quickly falling to his knees, Naruto dry-heaved, while muttering about it being too fast, and that he wouldn't do such a thing ever again if he could help it.

Managing to recompose himself, he turned towards his escort. "Thank you ANBU-san! See you later!" Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his key, he unlocked the door and walked inside, closing the door behind him, never giving Tora a second glance.

Sitting on his bed, Naruto smiled as he spotted the picture of himself and his jiji eating a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku's. His jiji had always been nice to him, even when he did bad things. Considering how angry that Hyuuga had been earlier, he thought that he would be in loads of trouble, but his jiji didn't even punish him.

Wiggling out of his clothes, Naruto put on his nightcap as he laid down in his bed. It may have been the afternoon, but he hadn't slept the previous night, and he was dead tired. Stretching out one last time, Naruto's breathing started to slow even as his breaths became longer and deeper.

He was so tired, that he didn't wake up that night.

* * *

Tora was not amused.

Some might even say that he was a little angry.

He was always a hard worker. Not having any prominent ninja clan to back him, he had to train tooth and nail for every scrap of skill that he possessed. No kekkai genkai shortcuts, no advantage of private tutors.

Ever since the academy, he pushed himself to improve as much as he could. He managed to graduate at twelve and join a nondescript team with a nondescript sensei, and managed to impress the judges at the chuunin exams enough to secure promotion soon after he had turned sixteen.

That had been such an amazing day for him. When the truth that he no longer had to do D-rank missions finally hit him, he was not ashamed to admit that he had broken down in tears of manly joy.

He didn't care what others said, their had to be something demonic about Lady Shijimi's cat. That cat was around since the reign of the Nidaime, dammit!

After becoming a chuunin, he immediately threw himself into ANBU training, giving himself the smallest of breaks. After a year of hard work, his dedication did not go unnoticed. His superior's impressed by his drive, He was quickly recruited to fill the ranks of the ANBU slain in the midst of the Kyuubi attack. So, at the tender age of seventeen, Tora became one of the many faceless ANBU Black Ops Operatives.

That was seven years ago.

It was a very tough seven years. Despite his dedication, even Tora had limits, he himself being forced out of the ANBU program as necessitated by his oath. Even shinobi had limits, and all agents were required to spend at least six months in the regular pool of shinobi every three years, to prevent them from being driven insane by the sheer psychological torture that were ANBU missions.

They were Black Ops. They received the dirtiest and most secretive of missions. Worst of all, if something went wrong, that was it. The mission was not on record, they never existed. If the mission went south, they would be doomed.

Despite this, Tora did well for himself. He didn't thrive like he had expected, but he surely didn't wither like he had seen many other operatives. He held pride in his work, and the upgraded pay scale didn't hurt either.

However, he did not like this, nor did he not have any pride in what he was currently doing.

He was an ANBU Black Ops pperative, the elite corps, the best of what Konoha had to offer. The scalpel that removed any threats against Konoha and her continued existence. So he felt that it was completely understandable that he was angry that he was essentially a babysitter for a brat.

Don't get him wrong, he knew who the kid was and what he contained. Sure, he didn't hate the kid like much of the village did, and he did realize the military advantage that the kid represented, but that didn't matter. All his effort and hard work in his life, and he was a glorified nanny.

Seeing the sun had set just over an hour ago, and most people had already turned in for the night, Tora turned around, witnessing the arrival of Tori, his replacement for the night. Giving his comrade a slight nod, he turned around, ready to go home and forget about the day, preferably in a nice saucer of sake.

His train of thought was immediately cut off when he felt a small pinch of pain in his chest. Looking down, he say the sanguine blade of a tanto sprouting from his chest, piercing through where his heart was located.

Before he could react, the blade was withdrawn from his chest, accompanied by a wet squelch, a fine trail of blood following the retreating edge. Blood still dripping down the length of the blade, Tora didn't even have the time to scream, much less realize Tori had betrayed him, before his head was relieved from his shoulders.

Tori watched as the headless body of his fellow shinobi fell to the ground. A glazed look in his eye, Tori pulled out a sack and bagged Tora's corpse, not wanting to risk the off chance that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki or any other shinobi could feel the slight usage of chakra that was associated with the activation of storage scrolls.

Tying the top of the sack with a length of rope that he had brought with him, Tori stood up straight when he heard the shuffling and clacking of wood approaching him from behind. Turning around, he was greeted by a hunched figure wearing a cloak that hid his features.

When the hunched figure settled in front of him, a gravelly voice emerged from the depths of the cloak. Since the figure had come closer, Tori was able to identify a prominent design on the cloak that had escaped his attention before due to the darkness of the night.

Red clouds.

"Eiko Sanda, do you remember who I am?"

 **Story Word Count: 4,003 Words**

 **Finished: July 29, 2015**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Naruto nor Black Rock Shooter. They belong to their respective owners.**

 _Opening his eyes, the unusual world from before greeted him._

 _Crossing his arms, Naruto huffed in anger. Kicking a small stone by his foot, the blonde threw his arms into the air and yelled at the sky, "This is starting to get real old real fast! I'll be out of this genjutsu in no time!"_

 _What else could it possibly be? The first two times Naruto discounted this world as a dream, but now it was occurring far too frequently for it to just be a dream. There had to be something more to it._

 _Turning around, he was going to stomp off to see if he could get somewhere else, anywhere else, when he crashed into a figure, sending him to the ground with a squeak._

 _If anyone questioned him though, it wasn't a squeak. It was a grunt. Yes, a very manly grunt that in no way could be confused with a squeak._

 _"_ _Itai…", Naruto moaned as he rubbed his forehead. He was known for his exceptionally thick skull, so it was impressive that such a collision could hurt him. Hell, it felt like he crashed into a wall of steel!_

 _His vision clearing, Naruto immediately focused on the hand that was in front of his face. Looking up, Naruto had to repress his urge to flinch when he saw who exactly the hand belonged to._

 _Those eyes again. Despite the multiple times that he had dreamed of the girl, it was always her eyes that stood out the most. Whether she was fighting with the monster from before or simply walking, it was her glowing eyes that always attracted his attention._

 _The eyes were glowing, but they were never bright. Despite the luminosity of her eyes, there seemed to be little emotion, little empathy for those outside of herself. Even then, it did not seem that she cared for herself all that much either._

 _"_ _My hand…take it…"_

 _This time, Naruto did actually jump a little from his seat on the ground. Despite the multiple dreams/illusions that he had featuring the girl, this was actually the first time that she had talked to him._

 _Before Naruto could react in his proper manner by accusing her of being creepy and sneaking up on him, he felt a violent pull from the area around his stomach, or to be more exact, his navel. The girl never stopped looking at him nor retracted her hand as his world faded to black._

* * *

Naruto may not have started to academy yet, but there were many things that he had done that were abnormal by civilian standards.

Successfully pulling a prank without anyone noticing it until it was too late? Done.

Evading capture from chuunin who pursued him after said prank? They might not have been trying their hardest, but Naruto had several of those notches under his belt.

Humiliating an entire clan in the course of a single night? Hell, he did that the previous night!

Waking up to realize that he was floating fifty feet in the air immersed in a chakra bubble connected to a giant creepy statue holding up ten figures? Yeah, even he hadn't experienced something as ludicrous as that.

Oh, and the pain.

It felt like there was a invisible thread connected to a spot just behind his belly button. The was a constant tug at that spot, and with each passing heartbeat, the tug only became all the more powerful. Naturally, the intensity of the pain was nothing he had experienced before.

A bloodcurdling scream tore from his lips, alerting the ten shadowed figures that were present of his consciousness.

Before the pain overwhelmed him and drove him into unconsciousness, he managed to catch a single line from a decidedly feminine-looking shadow.

"Looks like he's awake, un…"

* * *

The Sandaime rubbed his face as he looked wearily at his unfinished stack of paperwork. Usually, he was able to deal with the volume of paperwork. He had been doing this job for decades now, and paperwork was not something new. However, there was a single event that multiplied the already large workload.

The Uchiha Massacre two weeks prior.

Despite his hard work and his wishes, he was unable to reconcile the grievances that the Uchiha Clan had against the village. His teammate, the more paranoid one of the two, along with his advisors decided that enough was enough, and had the clan slaughtered.

By one of their own.

Hiruzen didn't want it to end like this. Sure, a Civil War could spell doom for the entire village, but they had put the burden of killing an entire clan on such a young and promising ninja, much less the ninja's own clan. Even with such a service, he would never be recognized for it.

No, Uchiha Itachi would forever be known as the greatest traitor of Konoha since Orochimaru, and very few would know of how much he had sacrificed for the good of the village, for the Will of Fire. He would be hated and hunted by the entire world.

There was even the second mission that Sarutobi was even more insane. It was bad enough that they had to have a child harden his heart to kill his family, but to take the same damaged kid and have him infiltrate what could amount to be the most dangerous organization on the planet? He felt sickened.

The populace could never know the true reason behind Itachi's actions. If the other clans learned that the village elders would eliminate their clans in order to prevent dissent, Konoha would not survive another day. The paranoia and outrage would drive the various clans apart and away from the village, forever destroying what Itachi and many others had given up so much to preserve.

Pulling out his pipe, Sarutobi reached into his robes' pocket and pulled out a small tin. Opening the container, he pinched a small handful of tobacco between his fingers and compacted it into the pipe that he held with his other hand. With a small application of fire chakra to light the tobacco, the aged leader wrapped his lips around the stem and inhaled deeply.

Contrary to popular belief, smoking did not cause as much harm as the civilians thought, at least for shinobi. No shinobi worth their salt would grievously harm their physical ability in such a way, but smoking was a good stress reliever.

That's why tobacco was processed in a different way for shinobi. the military version was not processed with tar. Less satisfying, but still good for their health in the long term. The application of chakra to the teeth, gums, esophagus, and lungs was enough to kickstart a minor healing factor that all chakra users possessed to reject the carcinogens and other harmful chemicals in the tobacco.

Hearing the door open in front of him, the Hokage was snapped his head up, reading to tear into the person who disturbed him. He was already stressed out enough as it was, he didn't need to hear about any more problems.

Why was the visitor here anyways? He had delegated the task of assigning missions and receiving mission reports to his advisors. As much of an undermining force as they were to his power, he could not deny that their expertise and experience in administration was highly appreciated in such a turbulent time.

When the Sandaime's eyes came in contact with the visitor's he froze.

In order for Itachi's second mission to be effective, there needed to be a way for him to report to a superior so that they could relay the information back to the Hokage. There were very few who could do this task, since most of Konoha believed that Itachi was a psychopath. Usually, Itachi would send the information to Jiraiya who would then make a report when he came back to village, as he did several times per year.

Second, there was the method used to communicate information. From what Jiraiya already managed to uncover, the organization was pretty loose knit. Other than the partner that each member travelled with, each member would be lucky to see any other member of the organization more than once a year.

Because of this, it was already assumed that Itachi would be able to get away from his partner often enough to make a report to Jiraiya, whether it was in person via clone, or in a less hospitable scenario, through messenger bird.

However, given that plans usually never survived the first contact with the enemy, the three of them devised an additional way to communicate information, in this case directly with the Hokage. This method would only be used in the most dire or urgent of situations.

Looking at his visitor, everything below his neck seemed normal. Standard shinobi sandals, shinobi pants tied off at the bottom with medical tape, a light but sturdy top that was covered by a chuunin flak jacket.

It was what was above the neck that told the Sandaime that there was something amiss. With his mouth gaping, the aged leader looked in shock at the two three-tomoe crimson eyes looking back at him from the eyes of a subordinate that he was sure was not an Uchiha.

Exactly how bad was the situation that Itachi was forced to use such a method so early in his mission?

* * *

 _The creepy girl from the several times before was sent tumbling across the ground when the gear smashed into her. Not given a respite, the spider-like creature attached to the gear kept moving, crushing the blue-eyed girl beneath its feet. Continuing its march unimpeded, it turned around once it got a good distance away._

 _Shifting the gear-wheels to a more seated position towards the back of the spider beast, it came rushing back at the girl, this time at a far greater speed than before. Despite the change, the girl was ready, crossing her arms in front of her to meet the collision head on._

 _It was no contest. Despite being ready for the hit, the ninety-pound girl could not hope to match the sheer force of the much more massive spider beast colliding with her. Sent flying through the air, thinks appeared to be bleak for the abnormally thin girl._

 _Naruto watched in awe as all of this transpired in front of him. When he reappeared in the dream world, he expected to meet the girl that he had so many times before. He did not expect to see a continuation of his very first dream._

 _Pondering it for a second, Naruto decided that he preferred his dream to be like this. The last thing that he needed was for people to accuse him of being a pervert when they learn that he was dreaming a a scantily-clad girl some years older than him. His Sakura-chan would never approve, and then she would hit him over the head—again!_

 _Shuddering in fear, a morbid thought passed through his head. Was dreaming of a scantily-clad girl fighting a monster any better?_

 _When the girl started to descend from her impromptu flight, she gracefully flipped herself over midair. Landing on her feet, she was still sent skidding backward as the momentum was still too much to come to a complete stop. Shoving her left hand into the ground in order to stabilize herself and prevent from tipping over, the girl was greeted with the unpleasant sight of the spider beast bearing down upon her yet again._

 _Thrusting her right hand to her side, she did something that had stars forming in Naruto's widened eyes as he started to shout about how cool it was, lamenting since he could not do a similar feet, and hoping that she would teach him the 'super cool jutsu' that she was using so that he could beat 'Sasuke-teme' and show 'Sakura-chan' how 'cool' he was._

 _Around her outstretched arm, a bright blue light began to form. Even as it was attaining its proper size, it started to form a definite shape, widening and elongating at the contours of the weapon began to form. In what was almost a instantaneous span of time, what appeared to be a giant cannon formed around the girl's right arm, a cannon that was almost as large and much heavier than the girl was herself._

 _Hearing the shouts of the boy off to the side, the girl cocked her head. Strange boy._

 _Not wasting another moment, she raised the cannon. Bracing it against her right shoulder and stabilizing it with her left arm, she began to open fire on the spider beast even as she slid to a stop. Coming to a final stop, she started to charge at the spider beast, never letting up in her barrage._

 _When Naruto had first seen the cannon fire, he was a little disappointed. Why would he need some confusing contraption in order to throw rocks? He was capable of doing that himself! Due to this, he was completely caught off guard when the first of the rocks collided with the spider beast._

 _The monster was nothing to scoff at. Given its size that belied its speed, it could be a true monster on the battlefield. Given that it hadn't taken so much as a scratch during the entire fight up until then, it had to be durable too._

 _So when the chakra-charged rocks hit the spider and started tearing through its limbs, Naruto stumbled backward and fell down onto his butt in surprise._

 _Disregarding the shocked male, the girl continued. Rushing up to the front of the beast, the girl leapt. Pushing off of the face of the spider beast, the girl vaulted over the great beast, flipping as she aimed her cannon at the spot between the two wheels, charging a shot that would be far more powerful than the ones that had preceded it._

 _It was there that Naruto finally noticed what he had missed the entire time. Seated between the two wheels, guiding, if not outright controlling the giant beast, was a girl._

 _A young girl._

 _One no older that the cannon wielder._

 _In a way, the two of them were similar. Same pale gray skin tone, same bright eyes, same intent to kill._

 _Same detached look in their eyes._

 _The things that set them apart was their coloring and their clothing. Unlike the girl that Naruto was more familiar with, the beast rider had golden eyes that matched her hair._

 _Even from where he was, Naruto could still see the girl from the waist up. Of what he could see, he could tell that the girl dressed far more conservatively than the cannon wielder._

 _Before he could continue examining the girl and before the darker girl could fire her cannon, she was wrapped up in chains that appeared suddenly. Before she could so much as twitch, she was yanked away by the chains, being dragged to a place beyond Naruto's range of sight._

 _Before Naruto could chase after the only familiar face he knew in the strange world, his surroundings started to blur again as he finally truly lost consciousness for the first time in days._

* * *

The Sandaime sat in his chair, his pipe long forgotten as it laid on his desk with its contents spilled in a charred mess.

The chuunin who had been used to give him the report had left a minute ago after snapping out of the genjutsu, and the Hokage was left to ponder what he had been told. The situation was not as bad as he had been expecting.

It had been _worse._

Naruto had been captured by the the organization that Itachi was sent to infiltrate, and they were nearly completed with extracting the bijuu from his seal.

Never had he even considered this as a possibility. The rogue organization should be nowhere ready to start capturing the bijuu, and even then they had assumed that they would have started with the Ichibi.

That assumption really came to bite him in the butt now.

As much as the Hokage cared for the boy, the aged leader could not disregard the military deterrent that the boy was. With the beast in his gut, other villages were still hesitant to attack, even with the loss of the Kiroii Senko, arguably their most powerful shinobi, seven years prior.

The Sandaime rubbed his face as he thought of this. Despite what Konoha preached about the importance of teamwork, it was their powerful shinobi that had always pulled through for them. Sure, their exceptional level of teamwork compared to the other shinobi villages had always allowed them to slow down the enemy and kill a good number of them, but it had always taken a powerful shinobi to sweep in and push the enemy back.

The First Great Shinobi War, an armistice was signed not long after Tobirama annihilated Kumo's Kinkaku Force at the cost of his life. In the Second Great Shinobi War, the Sannin rose to prominence after fighting to a draw with Hanzo the Salamander, arguably the most powerful shinobi at the time. In the Third Great Shinobi War, Minato annihilated entire squads of Iwa nin in seconds with the use of his Hiraishin.

It was those heavy losses that still protected Konoha even after the loss of the fastest shinobi of the time. Konoha's enemies, especially Iwagakure, were still licking their wounds from the last shinobi war, and they weren't willing to risk something happening to push them even further into the hole.

The loss of the Uchiha Clan was just as large a blow to Konoha's military power. Despite their holier-than-thou attitude that was quite common among the clans, they were the clan that represented the greatest amount of military power in Konoha after the fall of the Senju. If the loss of the Yondaime, didn't convince other villages to attack, the massacre might have. However, they still had the Kyuubi, the bijuu who was believed to be the most powerful of the nine. It might have only been at half power with only the Yang half of its chakra, but it was still a force not to be trifled with.

This would be the final straw though. As it was, the Minato was one of the four S-ranked nin that Konoha had before his death. With the loss of him as well as the entire combat-oriented Uchiha Clan, the Sandaime was not ashamed to admit that Konoha's strength was less than two-thirds of its pitiful levels at the end of the Third Great Shinobi War.

This would be the final push. If the other villages learned that Konoha had lost its jinchuuriki, they would descend like vultures upon carrion. Because of this, it was imperative that they retrieved their jinchuuriki as soon as possible.

And who else to lead the mission but the Hokage himself?

Quickly performing a shunshin to the roof of the Hokage's mansion, He was greeted with the presence of two squads of ANBU. This caused Sarutobi to grimace to himself.

Rustling together two entire squads of ANBU at such a short notice was a notable feat, but with the enemies that they would be fighting, it would not be enough. At the very least, they would be fighting two S-ranked nin, if Itachi's intelligence was good. Considering his age, it might not be enough.

But it would have to do. With Jiraiya too far away to make it in time and it being impossible to contact Tsunade, this was all that he had.

His dilemma not appearing on his face, Sarutobi swiftly departed towards the ANBU HQ, the two squads of ANBU following close behind. The mission was off the books, so it was imperative that they left the village with none the wiser. If the location that Itachi had given still held true, they were still a half a day's journey away from their target, given that they travelled at a speed that allowed them to be battle ready at any time.

Reaching the secret ANBU exit point, the team of nine shot through the trees at a pace that would leave most chuunin retching within a few minutes. Even as he leapt through the trees, the Hiruzen Sarutobi schooled his features into one of utmost determination.

 _"_ _Hold on Naruto, I'm coming!"_

* * *

When Naruto came to again, the first thing that he realized was that he was no longer in the dream world. Unfortunately, that meant that he got a mouthful of raw sewage when he fell into a decrepit sewer.

Spluttering, Naruto got back up. Sticking his tongue out, he shook his head side to side in a futile attempt to get rid of the horrid taste that was in his mouth.

"Stupid sewage, who's bright idea was it to throw me into a sewer of all places. I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I'm starting to miss the other world…"

Looking down at his attire, he noticed that the sewage had soaked into his clothes, staining the orange brown. Squeezing his clothes in order to try and drain the sewage out, all he managed to do was wrinkle his clothes and make the smell worse, if that was even possible.

Giving up in his endeavor, Naruto walked off as he complained to himself. "First I'm in a creepy cave being hurt, and now I'm in a sewer." Stumbling over a rusted pipe as he reached a giant cell, Naruto cursed using some of the language he picked up from some of the village's more unsavory people. "Can this day get any worse, -ttebayo?"

Before Naruto could continue to complain, he was knocked off his feet by a sudden gust of air. Falling back into the sewage, Naruto immediately got back up and angrily wiped the sewage off of his face. Opening his mouth to give the sewer a piece of his mind, his words died in his throat as his mouth dried.

Looking down on him from far above his head was the biggest creature that he had ever seen. A giant rustic orange fox glaring at him with the utmost loathing in its eyes. Its nine majestic tails swirled behind him as it bared its teeth at Naruto, its wicked fangs glinting in the dim lighting of the sewer.

Even as Naruto looked on in terror, the giant beast raised one of its hand-shaped paws and brought it down at him. Frozen in place, there was nothing that Naruto could do as the paw collided with the bars of the cell, the claws mere inches away from his face.

This managed to draw a response from Naruto. Jumping back in fright, Naruto did what he did when he got scared.

He made the situation worse.

"Ahh! What the hell -ttebayo! You could have really hurt me!" Shaking his fist angrily at the kitsune, he continued. "What are you anyways, and where are we! It's time you started giving me answers!"

This only seemed to make the giant fox even angrier, if the murderous glint in its eyes were any indication.

 **"** **Foolish ningen! You think that you can demand anything from me, the greatest of the nine? I am the—"**

Before the creature could continue its prideful rant, it started to cough violently. Managing to stop after a few bouts, the previously irate Uzumaki seemed concerned now.

"Hey, are you alright? What's your name anyways?"

Being a creature which held absolute hatred for humanity, it disregarded Naruto's concern. It addressed Naruto with the same amount of malice and disdain as before, but this time with a note of exhaustion.

 **"** **Hmph, either that cesspool has not found it fit to tell their younglings of my terror, or I just have an exceptionally stupid container."** Looking down at the blonde Uzumaki, it examined him with a critical eye. **"I am leaning towards the latter, though."** It didn't seem to register the shouts of objection coming from far below, along with some promise about the Hokage. **"If your pitiful mind can grasp it, you should be honored to be in the presence of the great Kyuubi no Kitsune!"**

"But, but how is that possible?" Naruto raised a trembling finger and pointed it at the Kyuubi. "You should be dead! The Yondaime killed you years ago!"

This caused the fox to break out into a dark chuckle, mirth that was interrupted frequently by violent coughs. **"You actually thought that a weak ningen would be able to kill me? Fool! I** ** _am_** **chakra! I can't be killed by the** ** _feeble_** **attempts of your kind!"**

Instead of arguing the point, Naruto only waved at his body. "Oh yeah, then why do you look like that? You don't look like you have much time left!"

And it was true. The once proud and powerful fox was in a pathetic state. It's fur stretched over an emaciated frame, it looked like their was only a little time left before the Kyuubi kicked the bucket. The violent coughing didn't help the image either.

One odd thing that Naruto noted was the red string that connected the fox to what Naruto assumed was the ceiling, and as more time passed, the more tired and weak the fox seemed to become.

Even though the fox looked weak, its rage did not seem to lose its potency. **"This is your fault. Both you and that damned Yondaime of yours. He sealed me within you the night you were born."** Snapping its mouth shut in frustration, it glared at Naruto with even more intensity than before. **"And you were weak enough to be captured in your sleep!"**

Naruto looked thunderstruck. Falling back down into the murky water, he curled himself into and ball and started rocking back and forth muttering to himself, completely missing the last thing that the Kyuubi had said as tears streamed down his face.

"I'm…a monster?" Thinking back to the malicious murmurings of the villagers, he changed his mind. "No…I must be a demon…" Soon after he had come to this conclusion, an image of the Sandaime Hokage popped into his head. "But…Jiji said…Jiji said that I was an important person of Konoha…"

He looked up at the fox with a glassy look in his eye. "Who am I?"

The Kyuubi didn't want to admit it, but that look unnerved him. For a child that's hyperactivity was only matched by his confidence, the lost, sullen look in his eye was an alarming change.

 **"** **Look"**. The fox was ignored as Naruto continued to rock back and forth. **"Gaki"**. The boy continued to ignore him, completely unaware of his attempts to get his attention. Banging his paw on the bars, the loud sound managed to get the blonde's attention.

 **"** **I don't care what problems you have right now, because they are much worse."** The beast folded its arms and laid its head upon them, no longer finding the strength to support himself as his already painfully thin body became even more so. **"Two nights ago, you were captured by someone, and they are extracting me from your body as we speak."**

Naruto didn't even react.

 **"** **When they finish, you will suffer. I have been with you since the night you have been born. Your chakra network, as underused as they are, will not be able to take the shock of a permanent loss of such a massive amount of potent chakra."**

Looking at its container in the eyes, the bijuu continued.

 **"** **Your chakra network will collapse…"**

 **"…** **And you will die."**

Hearing this, Naruto had finally reacted. Lowering his head, he sniffled as the wiped his face of his tears. "So this is it, huh? This is how I die, never becoming Hokage or proving myself to the villagers…"

Looking back at the Kyuubi, he questioned him. "You never answered my question, who am I?"

Before either man or beast could answer that question, there was a loud clanging sound coming from above.

Looking upwards, Naruto immediately stepped backwards as a rusted pipe fell from the ceiling, nearly crushing him. Seeing the bright blue liquid dripping out of the ends, he finally realized what the pipes were.

A chakra pathway.

Just as he was about to lament the loss of such an important piece of himself, he was cut off by a deafening roar.

Lowering his head again, he caught sight of the Kyuubi thrashing around as nine spiritual dragons were wrapping around him. No matter how hard he fought, the progress of the draconic constructs could not be denied.

Just as one of the dragons were about to wrap around the Kyuubi's mouth, he looked back at his soon to be ex-container, and gave his parting remark.

 **"** **I don't know who you are gaki, that's something you'll need to find out for yourself."**

And with that, the Kyuubi was dragged upward and into a light that formed where the ceiling should be, the pain that was for too long a constant for Naruto finally subsiding.

Physically and emotionally drained, Naruto's world faded to black yet again, never to return to the sewer scape ever again.

* * *

Itachi frowned as he saw the ex-Kyuubi Jinchuuriki hit the floor of the cavern.

He tipped off the Hokage in hopes that he would be able to arrive and interrupt the sealing in time. He knew who the boy was. Naruto needed to live, if not for the security of the village, than for his sensei.

He thought that they would have made it, too. Given that he had hypnotized the Konoha shinobi with a genjutsu just before the sealing had begun, he thought that there would have been enough time for the Hokage and the rescue team to arrive. It should have only taken two days.

And that's when the horror of the situation finally hit Itachi.

From what the Leader had said before. The sealing process should have taken three days to extract a bijuu from its host.

Three days to extract a FULL bijuu.

During the night of the Kyuubi attack all those years ago, the Yondaime Hokage had split the beast in half, sealing the Yin half within himself while sealing the Yang half in Naruto. Because of that, the time needed to extract the Yang half from Naruto had been cut down to a mere one and a half days.

Seeing the body falling towards the ground, Itachi felt ashamed. His sensei had done so much for him. Showing him that there was a life beyond the clan, teaching him things that the clan would never approve of since they would believe teachings from outside the clan were far inferior to their own.

His sensei had refined his stealth and subtlety, being the most successful prankster of the time, and even continued to train him in secret long after his father had forbidden him from learning anything else from the 'outsider'.

Seeing his sensei's child's broken body on the ground, he closed his eyes as a single tear trailed down his face not only for what his sensei's son had just gone through, but for what was about to happen.

Something that would be completely his fault.

 _"_ _I'm sorry, Kushina-sensei…"_

* * *

"Whooo, we're finally done eh, Sasori-danna?"

Standing up and stretching himself out, Deidara flinched as his cramped muscles moved for the first time in over a day.

Pulling a bit of clay from one of his many pouches, he shaped it into a small bird. "It's too bad that I wasn't able to showcase my art. Konoha would have learned to appreciate my explosions, un!"

Before he could go off on a rant about the beauty of explosions or his partner could refute the statement, the two of them were interrupted by a figure growing out of the ground.

This figure was most certainly inhumane. With one half of its body being bleached-bone white and the other half being the darkest of blacks, it could only be considered a monstrosity. The venus fly trap-like appendages growing out of its sides only added to the horror.

A gravelly voice arising from the black half addressed the holographic shade of the leader. "Leader-sama, nine shinobi are approaching this location. They are less than an hour away!"

Complementing the urgent gravelly tone, the white half continued with a whimsical tone. "Yeah, the Hokage is there and everything. He even brought eight of those mask guys with him. What were they? AMBU? OBU? Meh, nothing important.

Not even bothering to correct the more stupid of the two, the silhouette which had eyes with concentric rings immediately flipped through a series of hand seals. Less than a second after, the Gedo Mazo, the very statue that half of the Kyuubi was sealed into, sunk into the ground and out of sight.

"Zetsu, dispose of the body, it holds nothing of importance. Get out of there quickly, we don't want anyone aware of our presence this soon. We need to capture at least half the bijuu before the villages learn of our existence."

Zetsu approached the body. Reaching down and grasping the fallen blonde by the collar, he was surprised as he felt a faint chakra signature from what he believed to be a corpse.

"Oooh, Leader-sama, the gaki is still alive!" shouted the white half excitedly, waving the young child around to punctuate his point. Even as he celebrated, a fist hit him on top of the head, smashing him into the ground.

Behind the fallen form of Zetsu was an irate Deidara, his fist still the position of the punch he had just thrown, and a tick mark on his forehead. Calming down, a deranged smile broke out across his face as an insane glint entered his mind.

"Give him here, Zetsu." Picking up the blonde boy from him fallen comrade, he set off for the middle of the cave, where the giant statue once sat. "There may still be an opportunity for me to showcase my art."

* * *

Explosive tags were littered all over the boulder. A good hundred feet away, the Sandaime was crouched behind some bushes with his two squads of ANBU. Giving the signal, he raised a hand into a half-ram seal as the ANBU tensed in preparation.

The explosion of the tags were mirrored by the explosion of action from the nine shinobi, all of them rushing into the gaping hole left by the tags.

Rushing into the room, the Sandaime felt a physical blow when he saw the prone figure of the boy he loved as a grandson. Rushing to his side, he picked the boy's head up and cradled it in his lap, even as the ANBU medic he had brought with him ran a glowing hand over Naruto's body.

The Hokage's eyes widened as he felt a small hand grasp his battle garments. Looking down, his face erupted into a smile as he saw a weak, but alive, Naruto looking up at him.

"Jiji…", he started only to be interrupted by a cough. The Sandaime held the small hand between both of his own.

"No, Naruto be quiet! Save your strength!", he plead, hoping the boy would listen to him.

"You'll be alright, we'll patch you right up!" Rubbing Naruto's hand, he continued. "And then we'll get you a nice big bowl of ramen from Ichiraku's, eh Naruto-kun?"

A glassy look entered Naruto's eye as the Sandaime started to panic. "Jiji…who, what am I?"

Before Naruto could get an answer, the world erupted into flames.

* * *

On top of the tallest tower in Ame, a spiky-haired man smirked behind his mask. He was no fool. Loyalty as strong as Itachi's was hard to sway, and Tobi didn't put it past Konoha to plant one of their shinobi into his ranks. Because of this, he devised a little test for Itachi, one that would prove his loyalty beyond any doubt.

This mission would severely reduce the strength of Konoha, because they would lose one of their rapidly depleting pool of S-rank shinobi. And that was the beauty of the plan. Konoha would not lose just any S-rank ninja.

It would lose a Hokage. The pinnacle of the Will of Fire, the rallying point of the Konoha Shinobi forces itself.

Tobi turned around and looked at the newest addition of the his organization. "Good job Itachi, you passed."

Reaching into the depths of his robes, he retrieved a ring. Tossing it to Itachi, the traitor Uchiha immediately slipped the ring onto his right ring finger, the kanji for vermillion glinting in the dim light.

"Welcome to the Akatsuki."

* * *

Naruto was laying on the ground. Even if he had been able to muster the energy and drive needed to take a look around, he would have been disappointed to be greeted by white as far as the eye could see.

He was dead. He remembered the flames, he remembered the ANBU, he remembered the beast that had once been sealed within him.

He remembered the surprised face of his jiji as he was consumed in the explosion.

Dead.

Dead, unaware of who or what he was.

Drowning in his own self-pity and sorrow, Naruto never noticed the bright light appear in front of him, nor the figure that was formed of it. He never noticed her until her hand popped into his line of sight.

 _"_ _My hand…take it…"_

The same girl that he had dreamt of so many times before, but this time she spoke without her mouth moving, almost as if she was speaking directly into his mind.

"And why should I take your hand? My life is over. I'm dead, and I don't know who I am!" The last part he yelled angrily as his frustration finally overcame him.

The girl was not phased. Softly she asked, _"You wish to know who you are?"_ Seeing the blonde in front of him nod, she continued. _"Then take my hand."_

"And why should I trust you? I don't know who you are." He slammed his fist on the ground. "You've been haunting my dreams for the last few nights! Who are you!"

The girl didn't show it on her face, but Naruto could imagine the smallest of smiles appearing on her face as her features softened. _"I think you know who exactly I am"_

Reaching up, Naruto grasped the hand that was offered to him. As he was helped to his feet, he was pulled by the girl in a surprisingly warm hug.

Even as he enjoyed the hug, he was aware that his body was dematerializing, turning into raw energy that was being absorbed by the girl. Despite this, Naruto couldn't help but smile. He might not have gotten his answer to the first question, but he finally realized who the girl was.

 _"_ _You don't need to worry anymore, for…"_

"We"

 _"_ _Are"_

"One."

 **CHAPTER END**

 **WORD COUNT: 6,512 Words**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Naruto nor Black Rock Shooter**

The girl blinked.

Such a simple action, yet it spoke volumes to anyone who could understand the barest details of the girl's nature.

Tsunade sighed as she rubbed her forehead. She had nothing against the girl. To the contrary, her mission record and absolute professionalism was something that every kage desired in his or her shinobi forces.

Tsunade would have been equally thrilled, and she was, but their was a single minute detail that made such a feeling hollow.

The girl couldn't be any older than twelve.

Danzo was ecstatic to have such a kunoichi in the shinobi corps—or at least as ecstatic as the one-eyed elder could be. This usually amounted to the barest hints of a shadow of a grin.

Under normal circumstances, Tsunade would have had her pulled from active duty and sent to Inoichi for a mental evaluation. Under normal circumstances, the girl would have been captured and interrogated constantly, especially given the situation that a patrol team found her in. Under normal circumstances, she may have even been executed, regardless of how powerful or special she was.

These were not normal circumstances.

As cliche as it sounded, everything changed through the course of a single day, five years ago. A mere twenty four hours finally managed to do what not even the Kyuubi could:

Convince the rest of the world that Konoha was finally weak enough to destroy.

How could they not? Twelve years ago saw the loss of both the Yondaime and his wife. Not only did Konoha lose the shinobi that won it the Third Great Shinobi War, it also lost the village's foremost fuinjutsu specialist and a competent jinchuuriki.

Sure, Kushina was incapable of actually using her prisoner's chakra, but the threat that she was capable of doing so was always present.

However, the final nail in the coffin was what happened five years ago. Konoha, already severely weakened with the loss of hundreds, if not thousands, of Uchiha shinobi, lost two entire squads of highly trained ANBU Black Ops agents…

…and the Sandaime himself.

Tsunade shuddered. Reaching for her omnipresent sake bottle, she made quick work of the cork. Forgoing the saucer sitting next to the bottle, she raised the bottle to her lips and took a deep draw.

The medical kunoichi didn't even flinch as the burning liquid sensation passed over her throat. Three decades of drinking the alcoholic beverage desenstized her to such a weak kickback.

It was gruesome. Tsunade herself was not with the team that found the remains of her deceased sensei, given that she was still gallivanting through the Elemental Nations, but the person who wrote the report had been very vivid in her description.

The explosion had been quite thorough. Even with the wreckage, no less than twenty five dead explosive tags had been discovered. Detonating a single one and measuring its intensity, it was estimated that no less than fifty thousand explosive tags had been used to destroy the cave. And that wasn't counting the inert ones.

Even worse, the explosion seemed to have been detonated in such a way that it was more incendiary than concussive in nature. Because of this, they were only able to identify the single corpse in the area as the Sandaime Hokage. The ANBU Black Ops members had been burned to ashes, not even the smallest of pieces left behind.

Even with the horror of realizing that their beloved leader was dead, it was what was held in his charred arms that really blew the team of shinobi away.

Or to be more accurate, who.

This girl. The girl who was standing before her in her office was laying on the ground, unconscious, embraced protectively by what remained of the Sandaime Hokage.

And the most outstanding part of the entire situation?

The girl didn't suffer the slightest injury.

Being a medic, Tsunade knew exactly how ridiculous this sounded. Chakra made the body and the mind resistant to damage, with the level of resistance dependent on the amount and potency of the chakra that had. This is why the ANBU had been incinerated, but the Hokage still left a corpse behind to mark the location of his death.

This still raised a question though: Exactly how powerful was the girl's chakra that she escaped harm altogether? There was no sign of a barrier or anything of that sort that protected her from the explosion, so she must have taken it head on.

Either way, the girl was a mystery. The only reason why she was free and whole was because the Sandaime seemed protective of her, if his last action among the living was any indication.

An her sheer power. Can't forget that.

Despite her being a foreigner and generally distrusted by the Konoha shinobi corps, her strength had helped Konoha succeed in many important missions. This was extremely important during normal times, but was all the more so now.

Tsunade did not harbor any delusions of grandeur. Konoha didn't have nearly as much strength as it did in the First Shinobi World War, where they touted legendary figures such as the sole Space/Time user of the time, Senju Tobirama, and the prowess of the combined forces of the Senju and the Uchiha Clan, the two most powerful clans of the time. Both of which were now reduced to a few members at best.

However, Konoha was dealing with the same problem as the first war. Much like back then, Konoha was pitted against the strength of the other four major shinobi villages.

Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, Konoha had faired much better than expected during the first few months of the war.

Suna shinobi were held at bay in River Country, and Iwa shinobi dared not invade the neutral countries that the Earth daimyo favored, slowing down troop movement. Mizu no Kuni was bogged down by stormy weather, and Kumogakure, the biggest potential threat at the time, were still mobilizing.

So despite their overwhelming numbers, Konoha held out due to their enemies incapable of laucnhing a full-scale coordinated invasion, and because of the several smaller neutral countries acting as buffers for Hi no Kuni.

For a mere year.

After a single year of fighting, a single event led to the war swinging in heavily in the favor of Konoha's enemies, Iwa in particular.

The betrayal of Taki.

The only minor village with a bijuu, the country was always seen as the tentative ally of Konoha. That was until Taki declared war on its erstwhile allies, and more importantly, gave Iwa an unrestructed passage to move its shinobi into Hi no Kuni with impunity.

Realizing the enormity of the threat, Tsunade enacted what had only been done twice before—the war time clauses. Civilian production of goods ground to a halt, martial law was instated, and children were drafted into the Konoha shinobi academy to undergo an abbreviated course in an attempt to bolster Konoha's forces.

It was obvious that such an action caused mortality rates to climb, which caused Tsunade to have nightmares every night of her brother Nawaki who died before his time on the battlefield. Tsunade's drinking had never been as much before as it was now.

Setting down the bottle, Tsunade picked i[ a scroll with a black ribbon tied to it. Ribbons were used to denote the level of a mission. Green was for D-rank missions, Blue for Green for C-rank missions, Yellow for C-rank Missions, Orange for B-rank missions, and Red for A-rank missions. Black ribbons were used to mark a missions as S-rank.

The effect of the war was seen even on the Hokage's desk. Usually, there would not be even a single mission scroll in the office, with mission assignment done with a panel of others in a different section of the Hokage Tower. Now, with the suspension of D-rank missions during the course of the war, All C-rank, B-rank, and most A-rank mission assignments were down by the panel in the mission room. Only the most important or highly dangerous A-rank missions and all S-rank missions were assigned personally by the Hokage.

Extending her arm, Tsunade offered the scroll to the raven-haired child. Taking the proffered item, she swiftly broke the seal, unfurling the scroll to its proper length.

Tsunade watched the girl as her wyes darted back and forth, reading the mission parameters for the mission that she was given. Upon completing the task, the girl looked up at the female Hokage and blinked, signaling that she had accepted the mission.

The girl turned around and headed for the door. No one entered or exited the office via the window anymore. Given how much more paranoid shinobi were during wartime, such an action was considered a death wish.

When the girl had wrapped her hand around the doorknob, she was called by the Hokage. "And Black Rock Shooter…", she started.

The young girl, now known as Black Rock Shooter, turned around to look at Tsunade, her hand never leaving the doorknob. The girl watched impassively as the Hokage's stern look slightly softened.

"…be safe."

Black Rock Shooter didn't visibly react as she exited the rom, but Tsunade believed that she could have seen the slightest of smirks appear on the young girl's face.

* * *

Black Rock Shooter exited the Hokage Tower, heading for the Gates of Konoha. As she didn't need food nor drink in order to survive, she didn't need to pack any. Everything else that she could possibly need on an S-rank mission was available on her person.

Even as she walked the streets, she could feel the looks that the Konoha citizenry directed her way. A few were grateful as they nodded in her direction thanking her for what she was doing. Most of them, however, were glares of abject hate.

She couldn't speak of the other villages, but Black Rock Shooter had noticed that the civilians of the village were prone to react negatively to anything that seemed out of place in their narrow definition of the world. Given her youth, unnatural power, apathy, painfully emaciated form, and her revealing outfit that left nothing to the imagination, their was nothing about her that fit into their definition of normality.

So yes, their reaction was a little understandable.

The shinobi were a little more tolerant of her quirks, but even then, many were uncomfortable working with her. Even then, some of her comrades believed her to be inhumane, an assumption that was not too far off from the truth. Due to this, she usually ran solo missions rather than working with a group that was unnerved by her.

This confused Black Rock Shooter. The shinobi life wasn't nearly as glamorous as many civilians claimed it to be, and many shinobi were exposed to death, nudity, and sexuality early on a constant basis. Despite this, many shinobi, some jonin even, were unsettled by her appearance.

Hm. It must be a normal human thing.

Reaching the village gates, she gave her tied mission scroll to one of the jonin assigned to guard duty. Channeling some chakra into the closed scroll, the ribbon tying it shut glowed with a small line of kanji. This must have been an expected event, because the jonin nodded slightly to himself. The scroll verified as authentic, she was motioned to depart.

Disappearing from view, the young girl reappeared on the top of the gates. With the onset of the war, the gates were constantly kept closed in the event of a surprise attack. This was a small effort made to slow down the invaders, giving Konoha more time to evacuate the civilians and mount a defense.

Not throwing even a single glance back, Black Rock Shooter launched herself off of the top of the gates, landing on the forest floor below. Shifting her weight, she pushed off of the ground and launched herself into the trees, heading in the direction of Taki, ready to carry out the mission that would help the Konoha war machine greatly.

* * *

Takigakure was a quaint village, in Black Rock Shooter's opinion. Unlike, he five major shinobi villages and many minor villages, Taki was the only one that took the "hidden" portion of their title seriously.

The only entrance into the village was hidden behind a waterfall that was laced with chakra. If an outsider were to pass through the waterfall, one of the sensor nin stationed within the village would be immediately alerted, and a force of shinobi would be dispatched to intercept the potential enemy.

Even if an intruder was able to slip past the waterfall undetected, there was still the submerged tunnel system to deal with. Only two of the various tunnels would lead to the village, the rest being either dead ends of booby-trapped. Only Taki-nin were allowed to know which tunnels leads to the village, and all visitors were required to be blindfolded before being escorted into the village proper.

Black Rock Shooter eyed the waterfall from the safety of the trees, and raised an eyebrow. These defenses were greater than some of the greater villages to her knowledge, but she could still see to jonin stationed just behind the waterfall. Why were the two of them there? If a group of enemies were confident enough to try their luck against Taki's defenses, they would either have to be powerful enough or numerous enough to cast away any doubts. Two jonin, as powerful as they may seem, would be nowhere near the match for such a force.

Either way, she would only benefit from this folly. Instead of having to find an alternate route into the village which would waste precious chakra that she would need later, she would let another worry about the infiltration. Now it made sense why she was given _him_ as a partner.

Her eyes didn't leave the two jonin as she heard the rustle of leaves behind her. A quick inspection of the chakra signature confirmed the identity of the newcomer—exactly whom she had expected.

"You're late."

She could feel the smirk on his face.

"Hn."

Black Rock Shooter's eye twitched when she heard that. Ever since the incident five years ago, she had the emotional aptitude of a rock. She believed herself to be passionless, that she only acted upon mere whim and not emotion.

And then the male behind her came and completely shattered that notion with that infernal 'Hn' of his. She didn't understand why it bothered her so much, it just hit some sensitive spot deep within her. Perhaps a lasting impression from her more naive days.

"Some of us have lives beyond the mission, dobe."

There was the nickname again. She didn't understand where it came from. Despite her young age, she was one of the best that Konoha could field. This, coupled with her ingenuity in combat, made the nickname seem baseless. Yet he still called her by it for some reason that always escaped her, and it irked her to no end, much to her confusion.

A girl of few words, Black Rock Shooter didn't reply, rather motioning her figure at the sentinels guarding the entrance. With no words passing between the two, the boy ran through a series of hand seals, his eyes shifting slightly even as he did so.

Without a warning, the boy disappeared in a flurry of leaves. Reappearing in the field below in a similar fashion, the jonin reacted immediately by reaching for their weapons even as they watched the newcomer.

This was their mistake.

If they had simply alerted the village instead of trying to attack, then the village would have been warned, and they would be able to send back up. In choosing to attack instead, they lost. Their fates were sealed the moment they looked into the spinning tomoe of the Sharingan.

Black Rock Shooter watched as the two jonin stiffened, their arms and legs locking against their sides before becoming limp again. Raising their arms in unison, they ran through an identical set of hand seals before flaring their chakra. Occurring in conjunction with the flare of chakra, the waterfall parted down the middle, unveiling a walkway for her to the pool that hid Taki's entrance.

Dropping down from her tree, she walked through the opening, not paying the two thralls any mind. Stopping by her comrade, she looked at him and gave him the slightest of nods. With this done, she walked to the pool of water.

"A thank you would be nice, dobe."

Turning her head a bit so that she could see the boy, no older than herself, out of the corner of her eye.

"Thank you, Sasuke."

Turning away again, she stepped onto the pool of water and cut the flow of chakra to her feet. Immediately she sank into the waters, descending with purpose as she extended her senses to search for residual chakra signatures that would reveal which paths were used the most often.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his head. He first learned of the girl from Itachi, his brother and sensei, when he was eight, when he had graduated early as a genin. Hearing tales of her strength, Sasuke was all the more eager to join the shinobi force in order to meet the girl who was so highly praised by his brother.

He was sorely disappointed.

He was expecting a woman of impressive stature who radiated charisma and power. He expected a woman whose mere appearance could bolster the morale of her comrades. He expected a woman who was the ultimate defender of the Will of Fire.

What he got was a broken girl.

It wasn't the thanks that he wanted. She could thank, apologize, and praise all with the same tone of voice. The same, passionless tone of voice. He was determined to change that, to make her feel, to make her understand what it meant to be passionate.

That's why he called her by such a derogatory nickname, it was why he went out of his way to annoy her. He wanted to see her eyes light up with emotion, even if the emotion was nothing more than annoyance.

Dropping his hand back to his side, the light of determination renewed in Sasuke's eyes. He wouldn't give up now. His brother had seen something in the girl, so as his younger brother, Sasuke felt responsible to make sure that she could become whole again.

Even if she didn't want to be.

Rushing to the pool, Sasuke immediately dived in after his female comrade. His chakra sensory skills were no where near as powerful nor precise as his comrade's, so he would need her if he wanted to get into the village relatively easily.

* * *

Eyeing the sunlight filtering through the water, Sasuke realized that they were nearing their destination. Speeding up so that he could break the surface of the water, he was immediately stopped by a hand wrapped around his ankle. Looking back, he threw a nasty glare at Black Rock Shooter for stopping him in such a manner.

Unfazed by the display, the girl did nothing more than raise her hand and gesture at him in a way that told him to wait. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out an item that would make their mission much more doable—a seal.

Now this was not any normal seal. Since the onset of the war, anyone who knew anything about the art of fuinjutsu was thrown into the hastily and unimaginatively named fuinjutsu department. It was there job to use the obscure art in order to balance the odds for Konoha, or at least balance them as much as possible. This was one of the results of their hard work, coming into fruition during the second year of war.

Due to Konoha's relatively smaller shinobi force in comparison to its enemies, it was necessary for shinobi to stay on the front lines for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, they would usually not have the stamina nor the chakra to last for extended periods of time, and many shinobi were captured and killed due to this. With this seal, the lack of chakra became a nonissue. Using this seal, shinobi were able to store chakra from days before in order to be used at a later time.

There were drawbacks though. Any chakra that was older than three days would immediately disperse from the seal, and since chakra was unique to each person, chakra could not be shared among a group of shinobi.

Sasuke was surprised that she had such a seal. Her chakra reserves were unmatched by anyone in Konoha, and was considered by some to be beyond what most jinchuuriki were capable of producing. The fact that she had such amazing control over it was mind boggling.

Running through a string of one-handed hand signals, Sasuke understood what she was trying to say. Their mission was suicidal, and they needed everything to go in their favor if they wanted a chance to escape with their lives intact. If they wanted to surface, they would do so in the middle of Taki. Given how paranoid they were being, there would be zero chance that they would be able to surface and hide elsewhere before they were caught. If the Uchiha was reading his partner's signals correctly, she had a plan to take care of this.

Continuing her message, Sasuke immediately coiled his muscles, ready to flee if need be. Her distraction would use a lot of chakra, hence why she had the seal. Such large-scale use of chakra would be like a giant flare to anyone with the slightest sensory skill.

Holding the seal between her hands, Black Rock Shooter held her hands in a modified tora seal, one of the few jutsu that she was capable of performing, and the only clone jutsu that has been labelled as a kinjutsu.

Kage Bunshin.

Without much warning or fanfare, an _enourmous_ amount of chakra exploded from around the ravenette, boiling the water with its intensity. Even as she did this, both Konoha nin could feel the disarrayed Taki-nin quickly falling into formation. There wouldn't be another chance. They had a single shot to get this right.

The flare of chakra reached its peak and stabilized before disappearing as a plume of smoke appeared next to the black-clad girl. As it cleared, another figure that looked exactly like the caster became visible.

The original Black Rock Shooter gestured at her clone.

"Go…you know what to do…"

The clone left without replying, shooting towards the surface of the water. With the amount of chakra that was used to create it, it should be able to withstand several blows, given that she was actually hit. It knew what it had to do—cause a giant distraction so that Boss and her partner can reach the mission objective uninhibited.

And what greater distraction was there than destroying the ceiling of Takigakure itself?

* * *

Shibuki thought himself as a good village head. He never had any aspirations of conquest, nor to expand Taki's influence and power into that of one of the main powers. History has never been kind to minor villages with such aspirations, evident in the demise of Uzushio, and more importantly, his father.

However, despite his best efforts to avoid war and remain neutral, the advent of the Fourth Great Shinobi War changed that. Konoha had been the most powerful of the five nations, and Taki and Konoha had always shared amicable relations since Kakuzu tried to assassinate the Shodaime Hokage all those decades ago.

However, he had to worry about the Iwa nin encroaching upon his land. He was not foolish enough to believe that Taki had enough powerful shinobi to turn back a full-scale invasion by Iwa, especially given the rumor that they had two full-fledged jinchuuriki. But aid never came from Konoha to shore up their defenses. Given the situation, there was little else that he could do than allow Iwagakure to move through his country freely, a decision that was wholeheartedly supported by the daimyo.

That decision was not without its consequences. Everyday he received reports from various other village heads about the Iwa hordes that would pillage their towns. Coming back from an invasion left Iwa nin both hungry and stressed, and they had no compunction in stealing from his people. A few of the especially decadent shinobi…relieved…their stress with the involuntary help of the civilians that dotted the countryside.

However, it was still a better outcome than total annihilation. At least, that was what Shibuki told himself when such thoughts would dog him at night, not letting him sleep. What was he supposed to do, fight back? They would last a few months tops before they lost, even with the help of the Hero's Water!

Given the situation in Konoha, he didn't believe that Konoha would retaliate for the supposed betrayal. Not only were there Iwa nin roaming that acted as a deterrent for any sort of attack, but Konoha had their hands more than full with the various invasions that they had to deal with. Taki was safe.

It was due to such a belief that he was caught completely off guard by the _massive_ flare of chakra that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the village. However, while the size of the spike caught him off guard, it was the nature of the spike that filled him with horror.

He was unable to recognize it.

Given the small size of Taki's shinobi force, Shibuki had memorized the chakra signatures of all of his shinobi with chakra reserves that were jonin-level or higher. If he couldn't recognize the signature, then that would mean…

Eyes widening in horror, he shot out of his bed and raced to his office. Throwing open the door, he rushed inside, moving to the far wall of the room. Struggling through a rushed set of hand seals, he placed his hand on the wall and pumped chakra into a hidden seal, causing it to light up.

It was taking too long. The panel always slid open quickly, but it was taking too long!

As the panel finally slid open, Shibuki's hand shot out and grasped the small container of water in his hands. Shaking it, he frowned as he heard the water slosh inside. Near empty. After the betrayal of Suien and the subsequent use of Hero's Water, there was little left to be used for this battle.

Tucking the gourd under his shirt, he sighed. It would have to do. The next batch of Hero's Water wouldn't be ready for at least another twenty years, and he didn't have the time to wait for that. Picking up the pouch of ninja tools that was sitting ready on his desk, he strapped it to his thigh even as he threw open the windows. Launching himself out of the opening, he headed to the origin of the chakra spike, hoping that he wasn't already too late.

* * *

"Put your hands in the air! State your name and your business here!"

The Clone repressed a scoff as it heard this. Why did humans find the need to talk in every situation? Even if it was illogical to do so, every human Boss had ever come across had always said at least a couple of words before actually fighting.

Maybe there was some protocol for this? Logic dictates that they capture it so that they can pump it for information about its village of origin, and its method of entering the village so that they could patch the weakness. Maybe they hoped that it would simply give up, despite the work that it had taken to get this far? Unlikely.

It was very stupid. Why waste that time talking when you could ambush the enemy, catching him or her off guard? It was obvious that it was the enemy, why else would it be there without an escort? Why else would there be a giant spike of chakra?

"I'm warning you! This is your last chance! Put your hands in the air! You have thirty shinobi surrounding you, there is no way you can escape!"

If the situation was any different and it had the emotional range capable of doing so, the Clone would have facepalmed. Not only had the Taki nin given away the element of surprise, but the exact number of opponents that it had? The Clone hoped that he was understating the number as to catch it off guard, otherwise it would question the future of Taki with such people among its elite.

Even with the storm of thoughts passing through the Clone's head, its face remained as impassive as ever. Ever so slowly, it raised its hands into the air, an obvious sign of surrender. It could feel the ripples of shock passing through the Taki nin as it did so. They didn't expect it to comply so easily, which would explain the waves of suspicion coming off of them now.

The jonin that had addressed it earlier walked into the clearing from his hiding place, obviously as surprised and suspicious as the others. Approaching the clone, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out some chains, ready to tie up the little girl in front of him.

Age meant nothing. If she was able to get past the two jonin guarding the entrance and releasing such an amount of chakra, she didn't deserve to be treated as a child anyways.

Stretching out a length of chain, he dropped his guard slightly so that he could wrap the chain around one of her extended arms. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible so that he could go home. He was a new jonin, one that had no noteworthy skills. He didn't think that that he would have to deal with something like this!

That was his mistake.

The moment he tried to wrap the chains around the clone, it struck.

The nameless jonin would never understand what had happened, even as he was bisected at the waist and a rock of some sort punched a hole through his just.

Throwing the weapons that had appeared in its hands at the approaching shinobi, it let them shatter in an attempt to slow her opponents down. At the same time, the clone of Black Rock Shooter turned on the ball of her foot and leapt away, dodging the hail of kunai and shuriken that impacted the ground that she just vacated.

Even as it was in the air, the Clone focused chakra into her hands again, two forms began to take shape. The first was of medium length and quite thin, finishing much quicker than the other. Once the shape stopped changing, a black and white blade could been seen in its left hand. The form in her right hand took slightly longer to settle. Unlike the blade, this formation seemed more mechanized than than the blade. As the form extended outwards, it was obvious that such a weapon would be larger than the wielder itself. Less than a split second after the blade finished forming, a giant black cannon pulsing with blue light from its barrel finished in the Clone's right hand.

The Clone landed on the ground, the blade and cannon held securely in its hands. Eyeing the Taki nin coming at it, she braced herself to prepare for the coming fight. Noting the determination it its enemies' eyes, the Clone made a small resolution to itself.

It would utterly _break_ them.

 **CHAPTER END**

 **Word Count: 5,294 words**

 **Finished: September 9, 2015**

 **Remember to check out the BTS for any ANs or other information. I won't take up any more precious space to mention it here!**


	4. I need your opinion

**Alright, I have gotten more than a few reviews stating asking where the PJO aspect of this story is, and where this random girl came from, why there is more Black Rock Shooter than PJO, etc.**

 **Because of this, I want to know your opinions on something. So I am going to conduct a poll about this. There are two directions in which this story can take:**

 **Option 1: Keep writing the story as it is, where the PJO elements will not appear for a long time. This way, the story may be confusing at the beginning, but you will know the entirety of the story by the time it is completed.**

 **Option 2: Rewrite the story, but start at the point where the story would be half-completed, and the PJO part of the story begins. The problem with this is that there will be an OC that you have never met before, and some things will not make sense. I will try and clear up the confusion with exposition and flashbacks as I write, but it may not be as clear.**

 **So, if you could either review with your opinion or send me a PM, that would be great. I would open a poll on my profile, but that wouldn't give me the reasoning behind your choice. I will keep the poll open until Thursday at 5PM EST.**

 **Cheers,**

 **Mugetsu16**


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